President Clinton coming to Dayton for Peace Accord anniversary

Our reporter Thomas Gnau is reporting that Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, founder of the Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the United States, will be among the current and former world leaders participating in regional events Nov. 18-21 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords.

World leaders, from left, standing, Spanish Premier Felipe Gonzales, President Clinton, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, (hidden), British Premier John Major and Russian Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin, applaud the signing of the treaty to bring peace in the Balkans at the Elysee Palace, Paris, Thursday Dec. 14, 1995. Seated from left signing are Balkan leaders President Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia; Franjo Tudjman, Croatia and Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay,pool)

“It’s a key element to the program to have a former president, and obviously he’s the right guy,” said McCance, owner of McCance Consulting Group, last week.

All-day professional and student conferences are scheduled Nov. 19 and 20 at the University of Dayton’s River Campus. Miami University is planning an all-day symposium on Nov. 18. that includes a keynote lecture by American diplomat and Miami alum Kenneth Merten.

Clinton was president when Wright-Patterson Air Force Base’s Hope Hotel was chosen in the fall of 1995 as the site of talks to end the war between remnants of the former Yugoslavia, a war which took some 250,000 lives and created two million refugees.

The peace agreement was reached there on Nov. 21, 1995. The accords — signed in Paris Dec. 14, 1995 — ended the worst European war since World War II.